For my first poem+pic, THE FIRST CHINESE LANTERN, look at the earliest blog entries.

CHINESE LANTERNS

God the engineer has kept us waiting
But late in summer, slowly, to his plan
The rods of lanterns fill, like fairy ladders.
Green pales to orange, darkens, crispens. Man

Must plan and build and cut and trim and rivet;
Measure his angles, fret and fume and leave
And come again, pick up again, restart it;
Fix every strut; then test and shove and heave;

But perfectly, and shapely, every lantern,
With every vein and fibre in its place,
Has grown, from fallen flower, to sturdy structure,
Light-weight and strong. Inside its shining space,

Rounded, in cosy light, the fruit is warm,
Ripening slowly, safe, till the lampshades wither
And, final brilliance! in the netted cage
The orange berry glows the same shining colour.